Research Foundation Board Member Timothy J. Lawrence
Colonel Timothy J. Lawrence is Director, Information Directorate, and Commander, Detachment 4, Air Force Research Laboratory, Rome, New York. The Information Directorate (RI) is the Air Force’s leading research organization for command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) and cyber (+1) technologies. The mission of RI is to explore, prototype and demonstrate high-impact, game-changing technologies that enable the Air Force and nation to maintain its superior technical advantage. RI consists of more than 1,200 military, civilians, and on-site contractors and an annual budget of over $1 billion, including $184 million in core funding.
Colonel Lawrence, a native of Waterloo, Iowa, graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the US Air Force Academy in 1988, Master of Science from MIT in 1991, and a PhD from the University of Surrey (UK) in 1998. His PhD research led him to receive the Thomas Hawksley Gold Medal from the Institute of Mechanical Engineering in 1999. That research, coupled with swimming the English Channel, led him to be named one of the top 10 outstanding young people of the world in 2001 by the World Jaycees.
Colonel Lawrence has served at the Air Force Research Laboratory's directorates in Edwards AFB and London as an advanced space propulsion engineer and space technology liaison officer. He authored a textbook on nuclear propulsion in 1995. At USAFA, he was director of the Department of Astronautics Space Systems Research Center where he worked on the design, assembly, and flight programs of FalconSAT-2, FalconSAT-3, and FalconSAT-5 small satellites. Col Lawrence spent eight and a half months in Kabul, Afghanistan where he was a mentor to the Afghan Dean of the National Military Academy Afghanistan. Before coming to AFOSR, he was the Commandant and Vice Chancellor of the Air Force Institute of Technology.
Colonel Lawrence serves on the Finance Committee.